Xenophobia: A Global Crisis.

Xenophobia is everywhere, in every country. A significant amount of locals always feel the foreigners are a threat, taking their jobs, bringing in more crime; the reason for those who have the privilege of being born on that land’s hardships.

I was born into a moment of mass xenophobic attacks and movements against Ghanaians in Nigeria, also known as the Ghana-Must-Go era. Thousands had to leave Nigeria in the late 80’s for their own safety with just what they could fit in these cheap plastic bags now known as Ghana-must-go bags.

Xenophobic attacks happen every day on a small scale everywhere, but mostly verbally with micro aggression. “Where are you from? Go back to your country. You don’t belong here!” Some countries are worse than others, like the USA, but it’s everywhere. Even in friendly Canada, even in peaceful Ghana.

But what makes South Africa a special case is their recent history. Every time I hear of xenophobia there, which has been ongoing for several years, I just read in bewilderment.

South Africa was segregated, under apartheid law until the early 90’s. It hasn’t even been two decades yet. The black South Africans were aided by fellow Africans to gain “freedom” on their own soil. You would think a people who experienced such would not repeat with others but humans are peculiar in this regard. The classic case of the bullied becoming the tyrant to others less stable. Some who suffer, when given any freedom or power, go on to treat those around them the same or worse than they experienced. We see this today with Palestine and South Africa.

What is often said is “they are taking our jobs, our money”. Although the white South Africans are a tiny fraction of the population, they hold majority wealth in the country. I believe about 60% of the immigrant population are Africans and majority are in the trades and services business, so they actually help the economy and with the employment of locals. So that’s not accurate. Also those who often complain about job theft are unqualified for the jobs the immigrants are doing or feel they are above some of the jobs the immigrants do. Generally speaking immigrants globally work harder than locals and for less because they have a lot to lose, they don’t have certified stability in the foreign country they are in and can be ejected at any time, getting to that foreign country was often at a high cost and they have to work hard for even second class benefits in the foreign country, they lack the luxury of placement by birth. Should they be targeted for this?

That is not to say that some immigrants aren’t bad seeds involved with crime as that’s the case everywhere but always a minuscule percentage in comparison to the good. In Africa the moment any negative act by a black immigrant is reported it is used as a catalyst for mass retaliation against innocent black immigrants. Why is that? Are humans just violent by nature? Always a step away from committing the worst atrocities with the slightest bit of reason? Are we just a broken civilization?

On the flip side it hasn't been two decades yet, perhaps the lack of time is also to blame in South Africa’s case. Looking back at other countries twenty years into total independence there was severe xenophobia as well.

I started this article ready to vilify South Africa but this is not just a South African issue. We currently have Nigerians looting and destroying businesses in Nigeria they think are South African owned in retaliation. How does that solve anything or make them any different from the South Africans? We have people calling for the boycott of South Africa when the same people are mute when xenophobic acts are occurring in their own backyards.

In peaceful Ghana we recently had Nigerians as the target, innocent traders and bystanders being attacked in retaliation to news of the findings that some of the kidnappers of the Canadians in Ghana were Nigerian. The ongoing discourse and xenophobia between these two nations has been a continual retaliation effect since independence so what makes us different? Simply because the upper middle class channeled their energy into a “friendly” rivalry over jollof rice does not diminish the fact that xenophobia is still a problem for the rest of the population no matter how less violent it is.

So what is the remedy? How do we solve xenophobia? Is there a solution? Why are we quick to retaliate violently? Why is Xenophobia targeted towards the darker coloured immigrants? Why are Africans so divided? Why are we so quick to fight within our borders against other tribes/ethnic groups and outside our borders against other African nations? Can we blame everything on colonization? Even so how do we fix things?

Black South Africans were at the bottom of the barrel in their country legally till just under two decades ago. The mental enslavement for that to have been is not something that can be easily wiped away but it is something that should be a main focus. Teaching them their worth and their fellow black man’s worth may be the first step.

Ghana has had over 6 decades of independence and still struggles with the concept of believing the Ghanaian can do just as well as the white foreigner, that the fellow African is a good role model, that inter African trade is just as good as western, that locally sourced is just as good as western imports. We still have such a low value of ourselves that we are quick to hand over things to any non black foreigner and blame all black foreigners for the crimes and failures of one while dismissing the often grande crimes of the non black foreigners.

How do we point the finger or demand change in one country when we haven't remedied ours but simply swept it under the rug till the next catalyst? How do we stop the retaliation mindset? So many questions unanswered.

Maybe we should ask Rwanda and maybe even Canada, they are far from perfect but they seem to be the only countries attempting to make real efforts to break the cycle of us-versus-them.